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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  November 15, 2012 6:00am-8:00am PST

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and we are out of time. big thank you to our panel. thank you, stephen, for the t-shirt. i hope your mom's charity does really, really well. cnn "newsroom" with carol costello begins right now. the benghazi attack that killed four americans is on the top of the agenda today. congress meets to find out exactly what went wrong. hamas military leader killed in an air strike by the israeli air forces. israelis are using twitter and youtube to show the world. should the government really use social media to help get its message across? talk about a way with words. listen to former mississippi governor republican haley barbour, as he gives blunt and colorful advice to the gop. >> the ground game is really important, and we have to be -- i mean, we've got to give our political organizational
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activity, you know, a very serious proctology exam. i think that's the only -- >> oh, yeah. and they say twinkies can last forever. but the company that makes them may not last all that long. the baker strike that could turn off the ovens at hostess. "newsroom" starts now. good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. so far, 16 people in gaza and israel are dead as violence escalates in the middle east. this time it could lead to a new war in that region. over the past 24 hours, palestinian military groups say israel launched more than 75 strikes for warplanes and ships, including the strike your looking at right there, which was actually posted on youtube and twitter.
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this strike on a car that killed the chief of hamas' military. now the two sides have fired dozens of rockets at one another. israel claims its defending its cities, following ongoing rocket attacks by palestinian militants. israel's military says it's targeting 100 sites across gaza. i know, youf heard this all before. this time it's different. because egypt is not happy with with israel. it's already reached out to president obama and told him, we must put an end to this aggression. sarah seidner is in the region and has the latest for us this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. yes, the number of those who have been killed during this escalation, fighting between gaza and israels had now risen. three people in israel inside an apartment building killed from a rocket attack sent from gaza, from hamas, the government here. we're now learning that 15 people have been killed here in total today, here in gaza, including nine militants,
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several children and a pregnant woman. what's happening now is off and on, we are hearing air strikes. again and again across the city, across gaza city and along the gaza strip. we know that there have been more than 196 rockets now that have entered into israel from gaza. we were there this morning when we saw ourselves 15 rockets coming in. some of those rockets being knocked down by the iron dome system, but some of them obviously making it to the civilian population. israel saying as long as those rockets keep coming into israel, targeting its civilians, the military will respond. and so far they have responded in a big way. we've been seeing huge plumes of smoke over the past few hours here in gaza and we do know that two more people have been killed here. carol? >> i want to talk more about egypt to make people understand this. egy egypt's leader is part of the
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muslim brotherhood, clearly on the palestinian side. mohamed morsi reaching out to president obama and saying, we consider this an act of aggression on israel's part. and this must stop. how does this endanger the entire region now that egypt's sort of been sucked into all of this? >> reporter: well, everyone here knew that the arab spring really changed things here. and now that you're seeing the leadership in egypt starting to make maneuvers -- everybody was waiting to see how that leadership was going to act towards israel. as you know, they've had a peace treaty for dozens of years. when morsi got into power, he said he would leave the peace treaty alone. however it gives you some idea of how things are changing. there certainly is concern on israel's part. they certainly do not want to be at war with a bunch of different people, surrounded by different countries, that they do not git along with. they already have deteriorating relation with his turkey and now
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you're seeing egypt. we know for a fact that egypt pulled its ambassador to israel out of israel yesterday when all of this started, when more and more of the attacks started happening and air strikes. and after the death of hamas' military wing commander here, after he was killed. so this is a troubling sign, certainly for israel, but also for some of the other countries in the region. >> sarah sidner, reporting live from gaza city this morning. back here in our country, david petraeus will testify tomorrow in front of a closed door congressional hearing on the benghazi attacks, agreed to voluntarily address questions. kyra phillips talked with general petraeus. the general says he never shared classified information with his mistress, paula broadwell. of course, as you know, she is at the epicenter of this scandal. new this is morning she is not likely to face charges.
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fbi agents raided her home, taking computers and other documents earlier this week. finally, we now know the identity of the fbi agent who first investigated the whole mess. by now you probably know him as the shirtless agent, the guy who sent a shirtless photo to jill kelly, the other woman involved in this mess. fbi agents name is frederick humphries, over those supposedly harassing e-mails now linked to paula broadwell. hope you got that. controversy over benghazi, as you know, has reached a boiling point, though. yesterday at his first press conference, being row elected, president obama has strong words for anyone who blames u.s. -- united nations ambassador susan rice for the benghazi response. here is what the president said. >> as i've said before, she made an appearance at the request of the white house in which she gave her best understanding of
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the intelligence that had been provided to her. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> okay. so it took senator john mccain about an hour to make it to the s senate floor to offer a response. >> that statement is really remarkable in that if the president thinks that we are picking on people, he really does not have any idea of how serious this issue is. >> seems like the testosterone-fueled rhetoric over benghazi is sort of getting out of control. former cia operative bob behr joins us this morning. good morning, bob. >> good morning. >> i want to make it clear to our viewers what lawmakers want to figure out. there are three separate
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hearings about to take place today. this is what they're trying to figure out. one, why didn't the united states increase security in libya? two, did the obama administration try to mislead people as to the nature of the attack? and, three, did the administration deny pleas from our people at the consulate for help? let's start with the first. why didn't -- why didn't -- why wasn't there more security in libya previous -- previous to these attacks? >> well, first of all, assessments from the ground apparently were not getting back to washington, were not getting high enough. that compound was under surveillance by the local services. benghazi itself is a jungle. all sorts of islamic groups. somebody should have raised the red flag early on and either fortified that consulate or simply closed it. somebody made a mistake. i don't know who that was, whether it was the state department or the cia or the combination of the two.
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but they probably, in the loit of today, they should have pu pulled out a long time ago and run all these operations -- >> just going on to topic number two, did the obama administration try to mislead us as to the nature of the attack? we all heard what susan rice said. republicans say she tried to pin this all on that terrible video that came out, that anti-muslim video, when she knew at the time it was something more. you've heard all the rumors flying around. what do you think? >> well, first of all, susan rice -- maybe she was misinformed. maybe she's getting unfairly blamed. maybe the cia sent a bad assessment to her. maybe the state department did. that's the kind of question they're going to ask david petraeus. but here is the problem with bengha benghazi. it was a huge cia base. and what were they doing down there? were they simply buying up arms off the local market, surface to
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air missiles? even some are arguing that this attack on september 11th had something to do with an arms deal that went bad and there are rumor that is possibly this cia unit or somebody down there was buy i buying arms to send to syria. i frankly discount them all. i see no evidence of it. somebody has to give us the answers. this is why this controversy is carried on so long because there's absolutely no clarity. we, as americans, want to know why four american diplomats were killed. >> let's specifically -- there is word that the people on the ground in benghazi, libya, cried out for help and help did not come. >> i think it's clear that the ambassador, who was murdered, did express doubts to washington about the security. there was no backup. the problem is, if there was a seven-hour gun battle for that consulate, that's not fast enough for the pentagon to react. it just isn't. i've been in those situations.
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you have to have the pieces in place before you can respond. i've heard the stories about laser designators and they could have called in air support. listen, to use military forces inside an independent country, a volatile one at that, takes, you know, weeks of planning in advance. somebody did drop the ball. but i just don't believe the thing that the military could have responded, could have sent f-16s down there to hit the targets. it takes a long time to set that up. >> when all is said and done, do we have the case of a watergate style cover-up here or do we just need the answers to some questions? >> david petraeus has those answers. he is out of the cia now. if he sits down and tells the truth as he knows it, doesn't shave off the edges, we will get our answers. and congress will, too. we take it from the next step. but somebody, i'm sorry, should be fired for benghazi. should have closed that place down. >> robert baer, former cia
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operative. thank you so much for joining us today. in the next hour, president obama will head to new york to meet families trying to recover from superstorm sandy. will he visit staten island, one of the hardest hit areas, and take an aerial tour. he will also meet with city officials, first responders and f fema staff. this will be the president's first time touring the region in new york. he he will be joined by new york governor andrew cuomo and mayor michael bloomberg and members of his cabinet. former republican nominee, mitt romney now claiming the president won re-election by giving gifts to after r african-americans, hispanics and younger voters. this is how romney explained his loss in a phone call to some of his top donors. >> the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts
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from the government and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. >> those comments aren't sitting well with some republicans, notably former romney surrogate, louisiana governor bobby jindal, who says he absolutely rejects that notion saying it doesn't represent where republicans are as a party. sure we just got done with an election, but warren but havette -- buffet already has his eye on 2016. [ camera clicks ] ♪ it's hard to resist the craveable nature of a nature valley sweet & salty nut bar. but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth!
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the deal, though, does not prevent civil claims from being filed against the company or fines related to environmental damage. disgraced former cia director david petraeus will testify in front of the house intelligence committee in tomorrow's hearing on the september 11th attack in libya. petraeus is scheduled to appear first thing tomorrow morning but could be called as soon as today. ceos striking a hopeful tone after wednesday's meeting with the president. heads of 12 companies ranging from wul mart, general electric, federal express, pepsi, honeywell and more met with the president. never too early to talk presidents of 2016, oracle of omaha putting his weight squarely behind hillary clinton. berkshire hathaway ceo warren buffett says he hopes she will
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r run. quote, i can't see how you would have anybody better qualified. 16 people are dead in the latest round of fighting between israel and the palestinians. according to the interior minister in gaza, more than 100 people have been hurt, including dozens of women and children. israel is releasing video of its deadly air strike on youtube and twitter. it's a tactic the israeli military has been using for quite some time. in fact, the israeli military has its own official youtube channel. if you go there today, it explains how the israeli military tries to protect palestinian civilians. >> despite the fact that hamas operates from civilian areas, idf has consistently taken measures to minimize casualties to civilians, placing phone calls, recorded warnings, all intended to alert civilian bystanders. >> that's just a bit of it. international human rights
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lawyer, and author of the book, "islamic pacifism:global muslims in the post-osama era," arsalan, god morning. >> thank you for having me here. >> what do you think about this? >> it's a pretty surreal experience right now. for many middle east observers we're starting to see another tragic version of groundhog's day, it seems. four years ago, many people will remember there's operation escalation known as the gaza war that killed over 13,000 palestinians and 14 israelis and now with this recent escalation we see both the idf and hamas take to social media, like twitter and are basically livecasting the war in 140 characters or less. >> i know. and on both sides, there is what we heartlessly call collateral
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damage, as in civilians being injured or killed. i want to give you another example. social media campaign doesn't stop with youtube videos. it's also on twitter. we recommend that no hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders show their faces above ground in the days ahead. i mean, do these terrorists actually read tweets like this? >> you know, it's one of those things, carol, where i think we're losing, you know, the true humanizing toll that this war is taking. you know, the fact that over 16 palestinian civilians have been killed, including the 11-month-old baby of the bbc world news arabic cameraman, three israelis were killed in an apartment building today. this sort of propaganda war on both sides is not conducive, and especially as you mentioned earlier in your broadcast, with an ever-changing landscape in
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the middle east with protests in jordan, with the ongoing syrian civil war, with assad killing his own people, egypt had an agreement to combat gunmen in the sinai, with turkey's chilling relations with israel. i'm much more concerned about the real missiles falling in the middle east as opposed to the missile in david petraeus' pants that many americans are focused on these days. >> give us a sense, because egypt's president has reached out already to president obama and said -- he used this as an active aggression on israel's part that this must stop. but israel is a great friend of the united states. so should the united states get involved in this latest violence there or just sit back and see what happens? >> well, i think what israel and palestine have proved over and over again they are wholly incapable of reaching a lasting
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peace solution to the conflict. i think now that president obama has won a second term, he now has the political capital in the second term to forge a foreign policy legacy that he didn't have the political capital to do in his first term. if i were the obama administration, i would appoint bill clinton as a middle east peace envoy. he has credibility both on the israeli street and in the arab world with the camp david accord s and with the clinton global initiative. we, as americans, the united nations has to get involved. we have to send a message to both israel and palestine that there's absolutely no military violence solution to the israeli/palestinian conflict. it can only be a peaceful and political one. today's talk back question,
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. now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day.
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the question for you this morning, should politicians have a mandatory retirement age? it was a simple question, if you're 27. or maybe those over 50 are way too sensitive. nbc's fresh face luke russert shouted out a question at nancy pelosi's presser and was soundly booed over his age-related queer. >> i some of your colleagues privately say that your decision to stay on prohibits the party from having a younger leadership and will be hurt -- hurts the party in the long term. what's your response? >> discrimination. >> whoa! >> next! next. >> leader pelosi -- >> i guess -- >> whoa! >> you always ask that question except to mitch mcconnell. >> oh, mitch mcconnell, the senate minority leader is 70 years old. nancy pelosi is 72. in the world of politics, age is kind of a skewed concept.
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average age of members of the house is 56. and of senators it's 62. i mean, paul ryan is thought of as a young gun. he's 42. that's eight years shy of being a card-carrying member of the aarp. ronald reagan was 69 when he first ran for president. many worried he was too old for the job until his famous quip during a debate. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> yes, reagan used age to his advantage. but seriously, how old is too old? remember senator strom thurman who commuted from walter reed to the capitol at the age of 100? his aides had to vote for him. of course, this argument isn't limited to the world of politics. ageism rages in the role world, too.
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how often have you heard those under 30 grumbling about those old guys sucking up all the jobs? so the talk back question of the day, should politicians have a mandatory retirement age? facebook.com/carolcnn. your responses later this hour. still the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickups on the road. and now we've also been recognized for lowest total cost of ownership -- based on important things, like depreciation, fuel, and maintenance costs. and now trade up to get a 2012 chevy silverado all-star edition with a total value of $9,000. from outstanding value to standing the test of time, chevy runs deep.
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the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ good morning to you. i'm carol costello. it is 31 minutes past the hour. there have been a bazillion theories about why mitt romney lost. we heard from everyone and their brother but not from the man himself until now. mitt romney speaking to high-dollar donors said he lost because mr. obama handed out gifts to groups of donors. >> what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government and then work very aggressively to turn
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them out to vote. >> so i guess governor romney really meant that 47% thing. joining me now, blaze.com, will cain and political analyst roland martin. welcome to you both. >> hey, carol. >> will, louisiana governor republican bobby jindal is criticizing mitt romney over these comments. >> i absolutely reject that notion, that description. i think that is absolutely wrong. that is not -- i don't think that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party and that has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election. >> will, respond. should mitt romney even have made those comments, even to his donors? >> well, you know, i don't know that he should be making comments, period. you know, one of your anchors on this network, john berman, pointed out to me it's traditionally pretty god graces to not talk about the election for some time after it's over if
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you're the loser of that election. that being said, let's talk about what he actually said. one of my favorite things about this election being over, carol, largely i get to stop answering questions about how things play politically. and i can answer questions whether or not they're intellectually correct or incorrect. what i would say to you is this. what about mitt romney said is incorrect? >> well, let's ask roland. obviously roland would disagree. >> that's real easy, will. that's real easy. first of all, he said that the gifts he gave to minorities, specifically black folks with the affordable care act. last i checked, white people are also covered by the affordable care act. it's not a black thing. that's first. also, here is the other deal. he talked about what hispanics got, young voters got, women got. let me help you when it comes to minorities, will. iowa is a pretty white state. romney lost to obama. maine, really white.
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vermont, really white. rhode island, very white. ohio, 79% white. in fact, carol, 72% electorate who voted were white. so when romney says oh, minorities got gifts, women got gifts, young voters got gifts, mitt, you wanted to give gifts to the rich. the fact of the matter is that these are americans. these were policies. this is a clueless guy who ignored hispanics, ignored black folks and he paid the price. and thank goodness he lost for stupid comments like this. >> can i respond to that, carol, please? >> absolutely. >> here is the deal. roland is right that mitt romney, if he said -- i'm not sure he said he lost exclusively for these reasons. >> that was a quote. >> hold on, roland. >> that was a quote. >> you point out many areas where this wouldn't have been applicable. this was a quote from mitt romney, with regards to young people, for instance, forgiveness of college loan str tr was a big gift, free contraceptives were very big
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with college age women. anybody now 26 years of age or younger is going to be part of their parents' plan. we had historic turnout. for example, among young people. are you going to tell me that president obama's policies, many of them, weren't crafted to appeal to certain demographic groups? is that an intellectually honest argument? that president obama didn't create policies he knew would appeal to certain demographic groups and reaped the political benefit? >> uh-oh, roland has his iphone out. >> quote, with regards to african-american voters, obamacare was a huge plus and was highly motivational to african-american voters. you can imagine for somebody making $25,000, $30,000, $35,000 a year, being told you're now going to get free health care, particularly if you don't have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 a family, this is huge. likewise with hispanic voters,
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free health care was a big plus. no, mitt romney, voter suppression by the gop was also the turnout. hispanic and african-americans got free stuff. young voters got free stuff. >> let me argue this less passionately, will. might the word "gift" be exercised from the republican vernacular because people don't understand what they mean by that? >> you get into an area that means much more abstract, was the word gift something people will find offensive? i don't know, carol. possibly. here is the deal. the intellectual analysis of it is not incorrect. and when bobby jindal, for example, tells you that we need to appeal to 100%, not 53%, whether that's because of tone or policy, what he is giving you is a political answer. what conservativism should stand for should be 100% applicable to the entire population, whether or not that's property rights,
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or first amendment. when you see policies that we just talked about, those that appeal to young voters, women or whatever demographic group, now you're talking about dividing the electorate. >> will -- >> i have to button this up now, guys. i have to button this up, guys. i know a great way to do that. republican haley barbour, former governor of mississippi and also former head of the rnc was talking about the republican ground game. i want to leave this block with his wise words about what republicans need to do. let's listen. >> i mean, we've got to give our political organizational activity, you know, a very serious, uh, proctology exam. >> and with that -- >> teed up for you, roland. do what you will with that. >> no, no. there's enough said. we've got to go. >> call a black doctor or a
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young doctor. >> i've got to go. we'll take a break. the wheels of progress. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling.
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scoop it out, scoop it out! will cross is something that bob and eye just always dreamed of watching our kids play. he really analyzes the game and plays it well, which is just like his dad. he always dreamed of being a dad. that's kind of all he ever wanted to be. he was gone for about ten months and was training the afghani national police. he came home about 2 1/2 weeks. that was his r & r period. it was awesome. connor had changed so much, so it was really cool to see bubba's reaction to all the new things that connor could do. he really, really, really loved his friends and family. he would do anything for them, even if that meant, you know,
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paying the ultimate sacrifice. once he was back and he was there for about four days, that's when he was killed by an ied. here, cooper. >> inside. >> yeah, kitty cat doesn't want to come inside. cooper, my little one, he's my little miracle baby. we wanted so badly to have another baby. are you going to wear daddy's hats? yeah. >> four days after i found out he was killed is when i found out i was pregnant. let's see. does it fit? little big. i try to keep his memory alive with everything i do really. look how big you guys are smiling. i talk about him all the time. >> this is his belt. we have a room that's kind of dedicated to him. do you see that thing hanging up on the wall? that's his saber. >> if anything ever happened to
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him, he told me before he deployed, that he would be okay because he had everything that he ever wanted in life. because he had connor. >> my daddy shows me how -- >> i'm going to raise his kids the way i promised him i would. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles
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46 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories now. just in to cnn, lawmakers in washington will get their first chance to see firsthand what exactly happened during that deadly attack in benghazi at the consulate. cnn has learned that a closed circuit video recover friday the compound will be shown to lawmakers during hearings today. those hearings, however, are closed to the press. they get underway in 15 minutes. we'll keep you posted as we find out more about this video. david petraeus speaking out about his resignation from the cia. the timing had nothing to do with his scheduled testimony over the benghazi attack. some gop lawmakers speculated he would not testify and suggested
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it was part of a cover-up. petraeus will testify tomorrow and he also denied leaking top secret information to his mistress. >> he has insisted to me that he has never passed classified information to paula broadwell and as long as i have known him, he has never waivered on classified information ever. and to the best of my knowledge, you know, that has always been -- >> that was hln's kyra phillips, sharing parts of her conversation with david petraeus. if you're drinking five-hour energy drink this morning, you should know it's being investigated to possible links of 13 deaths over the course of four years according to the "new york times," citing fda records n a statement the company says, quote, it's unaware of any deaths proved to be caused by consumption of five-hour energy thanchts twi . that twinkie in your lunch box could be the last for quite some time, hostess in a striking
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situation with its workers. fear not, fate of the ring ding, some of hostess' most iconic treats could get bought up by other companies at auction. at the start of his first term, president barack obama cited the influence of one of lincoln book -- the influence of one of the many lincoln books out there, "team of rivals" by making his cabinet picks. i'm having trouble speaking this morning. i apologize for that. anyway now that obama is starting off his second term, cast and crew inspired by that same book. a.j. hammer is here to tell us more. >> oscar buzz already. when you are the president and the film's director is steven
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spielberg, who happens to be one of your biggest supporters you might as well invite the cast over for your own private screening. there are some historians saying this movie isn't totally accurate but the story about a president dealing with his rivals to accomplish something great is something we hope inspires everybody in washington, d.c. >> that warmed my heart. let's go on to something that isn't so warm, though. the popular -- this is so awful. guy fietti, he's getting slammed in "the new york times." >> this is amazing. have you ever seen such a savage review, written entirely as questions, do you remember celebrity chef becoming the target of such scorn, have you ever seen a "new york times" food critic ripping not just the food but the service so brutally with questions like when we hear the words donkey sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about? and were you struck how very far
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from awesome the awesome pretzel chicken are? would it be surprised to tellfiw the reviewer was looking to make name for himself by rip agout of town chef? and would it surprise. you to learn that while he admits the review has given him things to think about, he stands by his food but my last question i promise you, would you believe that according to "the new york times" public editor, this is the first no star review that this critic, pete wells, has written since he came to the "times" last november or the first time he's called a restaurant poor? can you imagine all that, carol in. >> the answer to every single one of your questions is yes. >> yeah. there you have it. >> marshmallows that taste like fish. that's making me sick. a.j. hammer, thanks so much. >> sure. talk back question this morning. should politicians have a mandatory retirement age? your responses next.
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should politicians have a mandatory retirement age? this from pamela. not so much age, we need term limits and it should be on the ballot and not voted on by the congress and senate. from donald, as we live longer it's difficult to say when a person's too old. it's up to voters to determine when a person is no longer able to perform the duties of office. this from tes, no age limit, only term limits. from gail, people can suffer from dementia at any age. the bar should be set by honesty and integrity. >> from kate, no to age but yes to term limits. the president can only serve two. why not all elected seats? they would work harder on their legacy and care less about all those perks. keep the conversation going. face book facebook.com/carol cnn. more comments in the next hour of "newsroom." new york jets coach rex ryan
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blasts his players for not stepping up with their names. ryan talks about teammates attacking tim debow from behind the curtain. criptions. it's the aarp medicarerx saver plus plan from unitedhealthcare. with this plan, you can get copays as low as a dollar through a preferred network pharmacy like walgreens -- where you'll find 8,000 convenient locations. best of all, this plan has the lowest part d premium in the united states -- only $15 a month. open enrollment ends december 7th. so call today or visit your local walgreens.
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david price is the american league cy young award winner after edging out justin verlander. the tampa bay bay ace led the league in wins, winning percentage. he beat verlander by four points in the voting. it was the second closest race ever for the league's premiere pitching award. in the national league, r.a. dickey becomes the first knuckleballer to win a cy young award. he led the league in strikeouts and innings pitched so mets fans see, there's something to rejoice in. turning to the nfl, byron leftwich will start for the steelers against the dreaded arch enemy baltimore ravens. we're learning more about the severity of an injury that
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starter ben roethlisberger suffered against kansas city. besides a strained shoulder, he says he has a dislocated rib. he said that's the more scary part because i guess if it goes in the wrong direction, it cos puncture the aorta. no word how long big ben will be out. new york jets coach rex ryan is calling out players for being cowardly in the locker room. more than a dozen jets players and staff members criticized tim tebow's play in a new york daily news story. one starter called dee tebow terrible. but matt slausen was the only player who would put a name to his quote. coach ryan is okay with that but not with the other sources. >> we are going to tell you what we believe. i have no problem with matt slausen because he put his name on it. i don't agree with everything matt said. i agree with the fact that we have a starting quarterback. >> man, that team's a mess. ryan says that starting quarterback mark sanchez will be on the field on sunday.
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a swedish soccer player, not just the goal of the season. zaltan strikes a bicycle kick from yards out. what's more amazing, the guy scored all four of sweden's goals in the win over england. oh, that's awesome. that's a look at sports this morning. the next hour of cnn the next hour of cnn newsroom starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com stories we're watching in the newsroom, it's alling about benghazi in congress. the house and senate holding closed door hearings on the attack and we could be reaching a boiling point. it's one of the worst environmental disasters in american history. now two years after millions of gallons of oil spilled from a rig in the gulf of mexico, the government has reached a record settlement with bp. no more twinkies. that popular snack could be disappearing quickly from store shelves if a labor dispute doesn't end today. and we're just seven days away from the biggest shopping
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days of the year. the world's largest retailer has a strike on its hands. why warehouse workers at walmart walked off the job. "newsroom" starts now. and good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you for being with me. the hearings on benghazi expected to begin at any moment. congressional leader are hoping to find out what went wrong when the benghazi consulate was attacked and will get a firsthand account. we have an word this morning lawmakers will see a closed circuit video recovered from the compound, the first comprehensive account of events on the ground. we now know too that david petraeus despite the scandal swirling around him will testify tomorrow at these hearings. he says he didn't resign over the benghazi attacks. he talked with hln's kyra
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phillips. >> he has said that this has nothing to do with benghazi. and he wants to testify. he will testify. he has maintained to me all ong th this was a personal failing, robin, which as i said, to me, was quite stunning and to many other people. he's not the type of person that i've ever known to fail knowing him as long as i have over the years. so he has made it very clear that this was about an extramarital affair and not over classified information or benghazi. >> and the back and forth over the benghazi affair has practically reached a boiling point. here's president obama from his first press conference since he was re-elected to a second term in office talking about accusations, one of his kbt members deliberately misled the public about the violence in benghazi. >> as i've said before, she made an appearance at the request of
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the white house in which she gave her best understanding of the interrogation that had been provided to her. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> uh-huh. susan rice is u.s. ambassador to the united nations and on the president's short list for secretary of state. cnn's senior congressional correspondent dana bash is with me now. so it sounded like the president was saying, hey, don't go after my girl. >> you know carol how some relationships have baggage? boy is that true for these old 2008 rivals you could see in the president's demore it changed in that press conference from someone calm and cool to genuining and per.guess what, the same goes for john mccain. when he went to the senate floor very soon after the press conference at the white house and did to respond. listen.
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>> we believe whoever it is must be held responsible i say to the president of the united states, most importantly, the president of the united states who is commander in chief. who so far, in my view, has not exercised those responsibilities and also not informed the american people of the facts. this president and this administration has either been guilty of colossal incompetent or engaged in a cover-up. neither of which are acceptable to the american people. >> reporter: now, what prompted this unbelievably fiery verbal volley up and down pennsylvania avenue? it was john mccain and his friend lindsey graham vowing to block u.n. ambassador susan rice is she is nominated by the president to be the n-secretary of state. graham said he doesn't trust her because she went on tv after the attack at the u.s. consulate
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with information he says simply turned out to be false. >> something else i want to ask you about. there are three separate hearings going on on the issue of benghazi. yet, senators mccain and lindsey graham want a watergate style select committee hearing on this affair. what is that, and is it likely to happen? >> they're saying there are too many different committees and disparate committees investigating. they call it stove piping and they want it to be all consolidated into one special select committee. watergate was an example. they also give the example of the 9/11 commission. is that likely to happen? the answer at this point is likely no because even the top republican in congress, house speaker john boehner yesterday threw cold water on it saying he doesn't think it's necessary and the top democrat in the senate says the same thing, and others, as well. i have to tell you something that just happened on capitol hill, and that is our senate producer ted barrett just ran into john mccain and asked about something that we're hearing
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from democrats, which is john mccain is calling for more information to congress, but he had a press conference yesterday instead of going to a closed briefing where administration officials were giving more information. well, ted barrett asked john mccain about that, and it was apparently an intense very angry exchange and mccain simply would not comment on it at all. >> so this is just getting uglier and uglier, at least more passionate, shall we say, dana bash. >> absolutely. >> thanks so much. the gop republicans struggling with its party identity after losing the presidential election last tuesday and it's not just pundits trying to figure out why the republicans lost. here's former republican nominee mitt romney giving his explanation for the election result. >> what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote.
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>> but those comments aren't sitting so well with some top republicans actually in office. here's louisiana governor bobby jindal at the republican governors association meeting in las vegas. >> i absolutely reject that notion, that description. i think that's absolutely wrong. that is not -- i don't think that that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party. that has got to be one of the most fundamental take aways from this election. >> and about where the republican party can look for its new direction? here's former mississippi governor haley barbour. he gave a rather colorful option. >> i mean, we've got to give our political. organizational activity, you know, a very serious proctology exam. >> i think searching the soul is a more apt description.
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you can tell he's clearly frustrated. in other news this morning, if you drink five hour energy, the drink is being investigated for possible links to 13g deaths over the course of four years. that's according to fda records. in a statement, the company that makes this drink says it's unaware of any deaths proven to be caused by the consumption of 5-hour energy. here to explain what that means is our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. i have taken a drink of 5-hour energy. my hands were shaking. >> you were jittery. >> i was unbelievably jittery and having heart palpitations. >> you know, this is not the first time as you said over the last four years, people have been talking about, 92 patient reports, 33 hospitalizations. it's very hard, as you read if that statement to draw a cause and effect relationship. but the idea that this is, for example, a diet rit supplement, it comes under a different set of regulations than beverages, for example.
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>> a dietary supplement? >> i have it right here and it says so and it says on here the fda has not evaluated this product. so the fda doesn't specifically, they come in and take action if a problem comes up. >> so that goes in place of a meal? what's a dietary supplement? >> there's all sorts of supplements. there's herbs, pills. it doesn't mean it's a meal replacement. it's a supplement. how much caffeine for example is in here? how much of the other ingredients? they don't have to tell you. it says there's an energy blend, and so for example, with this product, there was a separate company consumer lab which dug into this to try and figure out how much caffeine is in there. they found it was 207 milligrams of caffeine. a 16 ounce grande coffee has about 330 milligrams. so a lot more in that coffee than this 58-hour energy but there's all these other ingredients. could they be doing something? that's what the fda is trying to find out. simply having the incident reports doesn't mean they've established that this was the
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problem. >> i'm just curious because i thought you had to have your ingredients listed by law on the package labeling. >> you have to have the ingredients listed but you don't have to have the amounts which is what the dietary supplements -- this is not the only one. monster, we were talking about that a couple weeks ago because there was a concern could it have contributed to the death of a 14-year-old girl who drank two of them over a 24-hour period. she had an underlying heart problem as well as we came to learn. could these other people who had these problems had some sort of underlying problem? that's why this gets so tricky. >> so i guess just be careful with that stuff because i mean, i can't take it. i drink a lot of coffee. before you go, i want to talk about your big documentary this weekend. >> we've been working on this for a long time called "deadly dose." every 19 minutes in this country, someone dies of an accidental overdose due to prescription drugs. we talk about it when it comes up with celebrities but it's our friends, family neighbors, people who reach into their medicine cabinets finding old
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pills, mixing them with beer or wine. that's leading to these deaths. also, 80% of the pain pills in the world are consumed right here in this country. >> 80? >> we don't have the 80% of the pain. sometimes it may feel like that, but we don't have it and yet we take so many pain pills. this is about the consequences of that and also i think most importantly what you can do about it. president clinton was the one who larried me to this. he's a part of this documentary. he's doing something now about this problem. we have a lot to talk about. >> excellent. when exactly does it air? >> sunday night 8:00 p.m. eastern. all right. tell me what you think. david petraeus says he wants to of it before congress tomorrow on the benghazi attacks but he also faced questions about that extramarital affair. we'll preview the petraeus appearance with general spider marks when we come back. [ woman ] are you there yet?
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more troubling violence in the
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middle east as 16 people in gaza and israel are dead, and it time, this new violence could lead to a war in the middle east. over the past 24 hours, palestinian military groups say israel launched more than 75 strikes from warplanes and slips including the strike you're looking at posted on youtube. the strike on a car that killed the chief of hamas's military. two sides have fired dozens of rockets at each other. israel claims its defending its cities following on going rocket attacks by palestinian militants. israel's military says it's targeting 100 sites across gaza. this time it's different because egypt is in the mix. it's not happy with israel. it's already reached out to president obama and asked the president to put an end to this aggression. fred maken is in jerusalem. and fred, tell us why egypt is such a concern this time around. >> oh, egypt is a huge concern this time around, carol, because
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first of all, it has a new and very islamist government in place that, of course, for many people especially hamas in gaza believe it's more on the sides of hamas than governments in egypt have been before. there are people who believe egypt might not stand idle by as this is happening as the government did in the past when hosni mubarak was still in power. certainly egypt plays a lynchpin role in all of this. the egyptians not very happy, not only did they call for condemnation of israeli air strikes in gaza but also recalled their ambassador here from israel and responded the israeli ambassador. certainly egypt is a big concern. meanwhile, the israeli military operation in gaza is going on. there have been further air strikes. about 100 missile sites targeted by the israeli military. they're saying they're trying to target especially medium and long-range missiles they believe could be a threat to towns like
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tel aviv and other towns around gaza. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said in the end he believed israel had no choice but to launch this offensive. let's listen in. >> in recent days and weeks, hamas and the other terrorist organizations in gaza have made normal life impossible for over 1 million israelis. no government would tolerate a situation where nearly a fifth of its people live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire. and israel will not tolerate this situation. this is why my government has instructed the israeli defense forces to conduct surgical strikes against the terrorist infrastructure in gaza. >> reporter: now, carol, the israeli prime minister also saying that israel is very well capable and willing to expands this operation.
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of course, the israelis talking about a possible ground operation if the strikes that they're conducting right now do not lead to the goals that they envision but certainly also say that they are more than willing to expand the air campaign, as well. the hamas is obviously saying these are by no means surgical strikes that the israelis are talking about, that in fact, civilians have also been killed in the israeli air strikes. so far we have 15 people confirmed dead in gaza, among them two children, and israel has been condemned by several country who's call this "an israeli aggression." carol? >> fred pleitgen reporting from jerusalem. right now in washington, lawmakers will get a chance to see a firsthand account of that deadly attack in benghazi. the house and senate are holding closed door hearings today on the terrorist attack that killed the u.s. ambassador to libya, chris stevens and three other americans on september 11th. today, closed circuit video recovered from that the compound will be shown to lawmakers for the very first time.
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general james spider marks joins us now. welcome, general. >> hey, carol. >> so there are all these rumors that there was video of this attack. what do you suppose is on it? >> well, we'll certainly see the tactics of what occurred on the compound. it will be a single eye view. i'm sure it's not panoramic. i'm sure it will be very, very focused on a specific spot. and there may be multiple feeds from different cameras that exist that they can put together. so it will demonstrate what occurred at a very tactical level. none of that is of signatures to our congress nor should it be. we know what the result was and there are four american patriots that were killed. >> why isn't it significant though? wouldn't it show like the attack was planned and how these terrorists were armed and things like that? >> carol, you would see at the end of that camera exactly what occurred. so yes. i think that's more of an interest to confirm the
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reporting that has already come out in terms of the time lines of how this thing was executed. what's more significant is what happened in the days leading up to that, what were the intelligence feeds, what was the pulse of what was going on in benghazi, what did we know? and how did that feed into senior decisionmakers. you know, carol, can every compound that the united states has overseas is subject to what's called a joint security inspection and vulnerability assessment. i'm not trying to be arcane. but that's a routine process of assessing your vulnerabilities. what does the threat look like? what are they focused in on and what's our stance to do something about it and what are the functions we need to perform? all of that comes together and you say we've got to bolster this or maybe we can take some risks here. i have not heard the answer to the question of when that type of a process, whether it goes by another name, when that took place and what were the warnings that led up to that and who knew that. >> let me ask you this because
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there are three separate committee hearings on benghazi. republicans say that we should have a select committee because this rises to the level maybe of a watergate style cover-up. in your mind, does it? >> i think the first place to start, i can't answer the question very emphatically whether this is watergate equivalent. i lived through watergate and now living through that. what i would tell you, carol, is that this starts at least initially in the house permanent select committee on intelligence. and the sissy, the senate select committee on intelligence. let those folks at the highest classified levels, they do that in a classified environment, get to the bottom of what did we know, when did we know it, how did it come to us and what did those feeds look like and how did we fuse that picture and disseminate that picture? once we get a better sense of that, you can say with greater confidence we need to combine armed services, we need the combined intelligence and foreign affairs.
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>> david petraeus is going to testify tomorrow, he was head of the cia. he was in benghazi. he talked to the surviving players i should say. will he have every single answer that lawmakers need? >> oh, no, carol, not at all. you know the answer to that question. he'll have through his own filter and through the filter -- every piece of data that is input goes through a filter on multiple levels to include your personal level. so he's not going to have every answer. he's going to be able to provide what he was able to assess. and in spite of what he's dealing with on a personal level, he can compartmentize very, very well. we've now figured that out. he'll be able to compartmentalize and focus on what occurred and what he knew as the dci and what type of information reports were coming to him and how that was being used and pumped back into the key decisionmakers. that's what intelligence is all about. is to facilitate good solid decision making.
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>> we'll see what happens. hopefully, he did compartmentalize as you say. general marks, thanks so much. >> okay, carol. talkback question today, should politicians have a mandatory retirement age. facebook.com/carol cnn. i'll be right back. those little things still get you. for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily
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now is your chance to talk back on one of the stories of the day. should politicians have main daer to retirement age? . it was a simple question if you're 27. or maybe those 50e6r are way too sensitive. nbc's fresh-faced luke russert shouted out a question at nancy pelosi's presser and was soundly booed over his age-related query. >> some of your colleagues privately say that your decision to stay on prohibits the earth from having a younger leadership and hurts the party in the long-term.
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what's your response? >> discrimination. >> next. next. >> age discrimination. >> i guess -- >> whoa. >> wow. >> you've always asked that question except to mitch mcconnell. >> oh, mcconnell, the senate minority leader is 70 years old. pelosi is 72. but in the world of politics, age is kind of a skewed concept. the average age of current members of the house is 56. of senators, it's 62. i mean, paul ryan thought of as young but he's 42. that's eight years shy of being a card-carrying member of the aarp. ronald reagan was 69 when he first ran for president. many worried he was too old for the job. that is until reagan's famous equip during a debate. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for
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political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> love that. yes, reagan used age to his advantage, but how old is too old? remember senator strom thurmond who commuted from walter reed to the capital in a wheelchair at the age of 100? his aides had to vote for him. of course, this argument isn't limited to the world of politics. ageism or some say common sense rages in the real world, too. how often have you heard those under 30 grumbling about the old guys sucking up all the jobs? talkback question today. should politicians have a mandatory retirement age? facebook.com/carol cnn. your comments later this hour. a walmart walkout with black friday just around the corner, workers at one of the nation's biggest stores are going on strike. we'll talk to one of the striking workers next. [ male announcer ] this is sheldon, whose long dy setting up the news starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve,
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good morning. i'm carol costello. in the "newsroom," checking our top stories at 31 minutes past the hour. attacks in the mideast today are raising fierce of escalation leading to a possible israeli ground assault into gaza. at least three people were killed when a rocket slammed into an apartment building. a palestinian doctor says 13 people were killed in israeli air strikes on gaza. the justice department says bp will pay a record fine for the gulf oil spill. details of the settlement expected later today, but the feds say the largest criminal fine to date was a $1.3 billion payment by drug maker pfizer in 2009. bp is deferring comment on the new report till an official announcement. in sports, lance armstrong's namesake charity has officially dropped his name from its title. it will now be known as the live strong foundation, which it's
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been called unofficially for years. the move is seen as a way for cancer charity to distance itself from armstrong's doping scandal. it's been two months since that deadly terrorist attack in libya that claimed the life of the u.s. ambassador to libya, chris stevens and three other americans. now lawmakers want to get to the bottom of what happened. both the house and senate are holding closed door hearings on the matter and that's when for the first time, closed circuit video recovered from the consulate in benghazi will be shownton lawmakers. our intelligence correspondent suzanne kelly joins us from washington. you broke this story for us. so, what does this video show? >> well, apparently an it's not really good quality but kind of shows the way it's been described to me by a source people kind of milling around and what not outside the compound before the attack started. now, what the intelligence community is hoping that this is going to convince some of the members of congress who have been very vocal in saying and
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insisting this was an organized planned attack that these people showed up at the consulate weapons ready to go. they think this shows something very different. they're hoping to sort of dispel a lot of back and forth and accusations who knew what and whether it was spontaneous or organized by showing the members in those committees this video. but apparently, like i said, it was described to me by someone, we haven't seen it yet ourselves, but it's not great quality video but you can sort of see people's movements and see people lingering outside the compound before the attack started. >> why did it just pop up now? >> remember, there's an ongoing investigation and that's being headed up by the fbi. they're the lead on this. so this piece of video is actually still classified information. in order for people to be able to see this, it needs to go through the declassification process which welcome to washington, nothing's ever quick or easy. but there might be a reason why director mueller would not want this put out there and that is because the investigation is still on going. they're approaching this like a
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law enforcement case can and need to gather their evidence and need to be able to be sure it's going to stand up in court. if you let too much of that out in the open too early it could hurt new the end. >> suzanne kelly, live in washington. workers as a walmart warehouse in southern california are demanding better working conditions and they went on strike because of it. it's part of a larger initiative expected to unfold in the coming weeks in an effort to improve wages and benefits for walmart workers. if the strike happens, it will happen during one of the busiest shopping days of the year. black friday. joining me now is chris allen, a worker at the walmart warehouse in ontario, california. good morning, chris. >> good morning. >> first of all, telling me what you guys do in the warehouse. >> well, we unload walmart freight and we load it on to other trailers to go out to other walmarts in southern california region here. >> and what are the working conditions like inside the warehouse? >> well, the working conditions
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can through the summer we were working through the summer, it's been very hot. and we've been -- haven't been getting water breaks. and we haven't had any clean water. we've been using tap water from the facility at the cross dock. and we've been on strike last month, and we just now seeing these changes with the water coolers and the cross dock. >> how hot did it get inside the warehouse in the summertime? is there air conditioning in there? >> no, there isn't. there's no ventilation in there. it gets up to about 100, 100 to 110 inside the warehouse. maybe even hotter inside the trailer that we move walmart freight. >> so some people might say, oh, well the water thing is getting better. so why are you still threatening to strike? >> well, because the working conditions we need better equipment to perform our job as
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far as pallet jacks, more equipment, scan guns and just basically we need more equipment. they have the equipment but it needs to be fixed. we need newer equipment because they're hiring more people in from a different agency, and every -- jams up a lot of equipment. you know, we don't have enough equipment to perform our job. >> and are you paid very much? >> no, we're minimum wage. >> and i'd like to ask you like workers at walmart warehouses in california have been on strike several times. but nationwide, warehouse workers are threatening to go on strike on black friday. are you guys pushing that? >>ing yes, we are. >> why? >> it's just basically we need more equipment, better equipment because they're pushing us to push out 200 boxes an hour. and it's hard for us to do that
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if we don't have equipment. you know, they keep track of our productivity. and we don't understand how they keep track of our productivity if we don't have equipment to do that. >> and just to -- just 0 a final question for you, chris. i mean, some people might say, oh, you're going to strike on black friday and make things difficult for all of us and maybe you should strike at a different time. >> excuse me. can you say that again? >> why strike on black friday when it's going to affect so many people's lives? >> well, the job it's affecting my family, as well. so you know, i'm just basically we need to change up in there. you know, i support a family of four. and my hours have been cut. and i've lost my apartment due to this. and i'm basically, i'm speaking out. when we speak out to the
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supervisors they silence us because it doesn't pertain, they say, to the work. but we address it to them that we need these changes, that we need equipment to perform our job. you want us to push out 200 carts an hour, but we demand or we ask that you guys make these changes and they haven't. they're making changes but they're -- there's not enough equipment basically. >> chris, thank you for sharing your story. we appreciate chris allen, striking walmart warehouse worker joining us this morning. clocks ticking for twinkie. another strike, bakers union strike threaten the future of twinkie. we'll tell you about that. ♪
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but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese. just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffer's. a twinkie in your lunch box could be your last for a while all because of a striking bakers union. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange to tell us strikes going on this season. >> yeah. so hostess has an ultimatum for bakers telling them get back to work by 5:00 p.m. or we're going to be closing our doors. hostess is in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings and trying to force big pay and pension cuts on workers. what the workers did was go on strike last week. just the bakers union but that's about 30% of the workforce. hostess says it doesn't have the money to survive an ongoing strike. there's no comment from the union, but in the past, the bakers union said the cuts were outrageous. if it liquidates, forget about
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the pay cuts. what hostess would do is close all 33 plants laying off all 18,000 workers. there would be no more jobs for anybody. carol? >> we'll see what happens. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. president obama takes a second tour of superstorm sandy devastation today. he's heading to staten island. o. 100% new. ♪ 100% greek. 100% mmm... ♪ oh wow, that is mmm... ♪ in fact it's so mmm you might not believe it's a hundred calories. well ok then, new yoplait greek 100. it is so good. ♪
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the reason the terrible twos are so terrible is that at this age, children are just developing their independence. and they want some sense of control. unfortunately, the terrible twos may start as early as 1 1/2 or younger. and they last longer than three or four years. so terrible twos may actually be a misnomer. parents can help their child with the terrible twos by giving them a special script to work with. my turn, please. i don't want that. no thank you. once the child has a better vocabulary and can express his or her needs, then often the terrible twos will go away. give your child choices. . do you want to wear these shoes or these shoes, do you want to eat broccoli or carrots. that way they feel a lite bit in control.
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right now, president obama is on his way to get a firsthand look at sandy's destruction in new york city. he'll also meet with families still trying to recover. yesterday, the president talked about the superstorm and he also talked about climate change. . >> have been an extraordinarily large number of severe weather events here in north america, but also around the globe. and i am a firm believer that climate change is real that it is impacted by human behavior, and carbon emissions. and as a consequence, i think we've got an obligation to future generations to do something about it. >> he says he's going to sit down with a burge of experts and try to come up with ways to protect our planet. victor blackwell is in staten
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island, victor, good morning. i don't suppose people who have like damaged homes from superstorm sandy are thinking much about climate change at the moment though. >> no. maybe that conversation will come, carol, but not today. they're talking about the people who have died in this community. they're talking about this, their businesses and their homes that have been destroyed by this storm. they're also talking about what's happening over here, the area set up for relief, for food, for clothes, for heat. they're also talking about the president's visit. and this is what the president will see. he'll see the relief workers. he'll see the firefighters. he'll see what people here have been dealing with for now going into the third week. we're actually hearing from some people that the president's visit is bittersweet in a way. they want him to come, but do not come just with hugs and kind words. >> it's bittersweet. it's going to create a lot of traffic. it's going to impede a lot of
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the work we're trying to do here. but at the same time, he wants to address the issue. he can do a flyover in a helicopter and look at the issue. if you're going to come here, come here with i an couple of truckloads of volunteers, guys ready to get their hands dirty and lets help the people of the area. >> that was mike hoffman. he is actually volunteering to assign volunteers to go and help people gut out their homes and help them rebuild. and he says all of the politicians and all the officials who come, it's great to have them here to keep attention on this area and on jersey and the rock away area, but come with help. come with something to help staten island start to rebuild. the president will be here late morning, early afternoon. and the president has said that he will support this area and give the resources that the people here need to start to rebuild mike hoffman thinks it could take six months, a year do that. carol? >> victor blackwell reporting live from staten island this morning. it's got everything, daniel
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it is one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the season. i'm not talking about "twilight." i'm talking about abraham lincoln, steven spielberg. how could this movie be bad? some critics and historians are saying it doesn't quite hit the mark. here's karine winter. >> this fight is for the united states of america. >> steven spielberg's lincoln offers a window back in time to the week's preceding is the end of the civil war and passage of the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. >> congress must never declare equal those who god created unequal. >> reporter: but for some critics the movie's limited snapshot of lincoln's presidency paints an incomplete picture of history. >> as cinema, it's vet very good. as history, i'm a historian. it leaves something to be
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desired. >> reporter: eric foner whose book abraham lincoln and american slavery won the pulitzer prize for history says the film's narrow focus exaggerates the president's role in ending slave ril. >> this settles the fate for all coming time. >> the emancipation of the slaves it a long complicated historical process. it's not the work of one man, no matter how great he was. >> blood's been spilled to afford us this moment, now, now, now. >> it was not lincoln who originated the 13th amendment. it was the abolitionist movement. in the middle of 1864, lincoln changes his mind to decide he's in favor of the amendment. >> tony kushner based the script in part on doris kern good win's best selling book "team of rivals." >> we were enormously accurate. stephen and i both cared a lot. we worked with doris. we worked with a couple of other lincoln historians. what we're describing absolutely happened. >> it's not a question of being
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wrong. it's just inadequate. it gives you the impression that the ratification of the 13th amendment is the end of slavery. slavery is already dying that the moment. >> in fact, he says if the 13th amendment had not passed in january, 1865, lincoln had pledged to call congress noose special session in march. >> and there, the republicans had a two-thirds majority and would ratify in a minute. it is not this giant crisis in the sense that the film is portraying it. >> shall we stop this breeding? >> and one aspect of the film that's not being questioned is daniel day-lewis's is masterful depiction of the 16th president. >> the most important thing was to get lincoln done right. >> daniel day-lewis i think presents a very plausible lincoln. i would recommend that people see it and then read a book about lincoln. >> reporter: because while it's based on real events, the movie is not a documentary and a full understanding of history doesn't happen in two hours and 29 minutes. kareen wynter, cnn, hollywood.
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ah, that was good. too bad nobody could hear me. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. to our talkback segment now. the question this morning, should politicians have a mandatory retirement age? this from carol. this should definitely be term limits and retired congressmen should be prohibited from working for or with lobbyists. this from arthur. age limit no. iq test. yes. term limits seems more appropriate. eight years just like the president. this from roger. as much as i would like to see many of the older obstructionist members of congress leave, the experience necessary regarding our country's defense, budget, et cetera there should be no age restrictions. >> this from george. a 90-year-old politician should have more wisdom and experience than a 50-year-old. it the problem isem